New Delhi: The Jammu & Kashmir Government has decided to take over responsibility of the Amarnath yatra from the shrine board. J&K chief minister has written to the Governor that it will take all responsibilities to conduct the yatra.

On Saturday evening, the brewing trouble over the transfer of forest land to the Sri Amarnathji shrine board (SASB) turned into a full blown crisis after Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's People Democratic Party (PDP) withdrew its support to the Congress, just three months short of the Assembly elections due in October.

On a day full of dramatic turns, Azad tried to do some damage control by sacking the controversial IAS officer, Arun Kumar who was CEO of the SASB, but it was not enough to placate the agitated PDP leaders.

Mufti, a former chief minister and PDP's patron, had set a deadline of June 30 for the state government to revoke the order transferring 100 acres of forest land to the shrine board. But, without waiting for the deadline to end, the PDP ministers handed over their resignations to Azad, turning his regime into a minority government.

While the Congress has 21 MLAs in the current assembly, its ally PDP has 18. The main opposition, National Conference, has 25 legislators, while smaller parties and independents number 23.

The PDP's decision to push the Azad government to the brink of collapse came as angry mobs burnt effigies of Mufti and his daughter Mehbooba. Soon after handing over the letters of resignation of her ministers to the chief minister and a letter of withdrawal of support to the state governor, N N Vohra, Mehbooba told reporters that it was her "moral duty to pull out from the government as innocent people were killed during last several days over the land allotment to SASB".

Source : Agencies